Hajj - The Journey of a Lifetime Practical Advice & Rituals - Corrected Lecture

without a gap in the middle, and hajji ifrat, no umrah, just hajj, it's very simple right, it's not that complicated.

Hajji tamattu, you do umrah, you take a gap, 3, 4, 5 days, some people go to medina right, or you just worship, you pray, so umrah takes half an hour, one hour, if you're really busy and slow on your new time, an hour and a half, maximum, umrah takes an hour and a half, so after you finish the umrah, now you get out of ihram, you may live a normal life until the 8th day of dhul hijjah which is the first day of hajj, then you enter into ihram again, so this is hajji tamattu, tamattu means enjoyment, why is tamattu called tamattu, because you get to enjoy a regular life in between the hajj and umrah right, tamattu, you're having enjoyment now, there's no prohibition on you, this is the hajj I will describe, if you're doing another type of hajj, come and talk to me, just minor modifications, otherwise hajji tamattu and hajji tamattu is the best type of hajj, hajji tamattu is the best type of hajj, why, because you do hajj and umrah both, and so this is why 90% of the muslims when they go for hajj, they do hajji tamattu.

So we said you enter into ihram, basically 5-10 minutes before jadda, and you pray 2 rakat and you say ihram.

Prohibitions in Ihram

Now, what is prohibited upon you when you enter into the state of ihram, 9 things, 9 things, 3 or 4 of them we don't have to worry about, so it basically boils down to a few things:

Number 1: You are not allowed to shave or trim the hair, so the brothers who shave regularly, they cannot shave in the state of ihram, you cannot go to the barber in the state of ihram, so shaving or trimming the hair, and this prohibition also applies to women.

Number 2: Trimming the nails, and this also applies to women.

Number 3: Wearing a sewn garment, as we explained what a sewn garment means, right, you understand, it's a pant or a shirt, this only applies to men, women wear their regular clothes, shalwar kameez or whatever they're wearing, their regular clothes, there is no prohibition on that, their skirts, blouses, dresses, whatever they're used to wearing, culturally that is what they will continue to wear in the ihram, right, so number 3 for men, is to wear a garment that has stitched, we explained what stitch means.

Number 4: For men only, covering the hair, so you cannot wear a cap, you cannot wear any type of turban, anything on the head is not allowed again for men, for women of course they wear their hijab.

Number 5: Perfume, and this applies to clothes and body, so you avoid perfume.

6 and 7 and 8: Usually and 9 is understood, no problem there, so usually there's a 5, what 6 is, you're not allowed to hunt, we have no problem about hunting, we're not gonna go take our gun or bow and arrow

on the plane and go hunting in Makkah, we don't have to worry about that, so number 6 is hunting.

Number 7: We also don't have to worry about inshallah that is getting married, okay, you're not allowed to get married instead of ihram, generally people don't go to Makkah and Dhul Hijjah to find a spouse, so we don't have to worry about that.

Number 8: Number 8 is basically any type of sexual foreplay with your spouse, so you're married in the state of ihram, you cannot kiss and you cannot touch with desire, you may touch without desire, you may hold your wife's hand so that you don't get lost, you may protect your wife from the crowd by basically holding her and making sure that as you know there's a lot of rush, doing tawaf is very necessary for a husband to protect his wife, right, because there's too much shoving and jostling, so you may do this, not a problem, touching is allowed, but sexual touching, foreplay is not allowed, right.

And then number 9: And that is one of the most severe penalties, that is actual intercourse with your wife, this will nullify the hajj in the state of ihram, so 8 will not nullify if you sexually kiss or touch, this will not nullify, that's why 9 is separate, if you do 9, then this nullifies, because that's exactly the point, you don't reach the level of rafath.

Dealing with Violations

Now, what if you do one of these issues, what if you do any of these besides hunting, we don't worry about hunting, we don't worry about nikah, that's not our relevance here, first point, when we talk about the hair, now please pay attention, I know what you have heard is separate than what I'm about to tell you, it's up to you whether you trust me or not, but as I said I have done research and I have done plenty of hajjis, what is prohibited is to intentionally cut or trim the hair and the nails, people go to ridiculous extremes and if they scratch and a hair falls out, they think their hajj is nullified or something like this, right, or if the nail is a little bit broken accidentally, right, then they are worried, you know, because as you know when your nails are going to grow, something might scratch it and your nail gets bent, what can you do with a bent nail now, so then they wrap their finger in a bandaid maybe, you know, make sure that the nail doesn't break anymore, this is going to extremes, anything that is unintentional is overlooked, anything that is unintentional is overlooked.

Additionally, there seems to be no prohibition whatsoever for a gentle combing for men and for women, because the prohibition was halq and that is to cut and that is to shave, there seems to be no prohibition for a combing and therefore if you do comb and a hair or two falls off, this is not halq, this is not going to the barber and this is overlooked.

So if you intentionally shave or trim and there is a reason or no reason, if there is no reason to do so, you are sinful, if there is a reason to do so, you are not sinful, but in both cases, you must give a penalty.

Now, what is a reason? In those days, once upon a time, there was lice, right, unfortunately still around but not that common, if you have lice let's say or if you have an irritation in the scalp or if there is any issue that causes you to basically you need to shave your hair off, right, any type of issue, suppose you get a wound let's say, right, and you go to the local clinic right there and he shaves your hair off to put some stitches let's say, okay, in the state of Ihram, this is a reason, correct, you are not sinful, but you must pay the fidya.

What is the fidya? The fidya for this, you have an option one of three things, the most difficult in terms of money wise is to pay the whole sacrifice, but it's not wajib to do so, for something as trivial as this, the Sharia has given you an option, one of three things, and it's not either first number one, then number two, then number three, you may choose whichever of the three, you may give a penalty of a sacrifice, that's $150, right, or you may fast three days after Hajj, not during Hajj, when you come back home, or you may feed six people, and of course 90% of the world, if they fall into it, they feed six people.

The Sharia does not say that you have to be poor, or any of these three is allowed, how do you feed six people? Very simple, you go to the local shawarma shop, I kid you not, you buy six shawarmas, and you walk around in Mina, in Muzdalif and Arafat, and you give it to the poor people sitting there, who have no roof over their head, and you have fed six people, simple, right, you have fed six poor people, you don't have to buy shawarma, I'm just giving an example, okay, you can buy McDonald's hamburger, there's a McDonald's in Mina, there is a McDonald's in Mina, you can buy McDonald's hamburger and french fries, a happy meal, and give it to the kids there, you have fed six people, okay, six poor people in that area.

You may buy it yourself, or you may designate somebody, go and purchase it, and in our times, many restaurants, they actually have a special section, believe it or not, there's a money-making business, isn't it, right, so they have a special section, fidya section, the restaurant has a fidya section, you go and you just give the money, and there's a section in the back, where they give it to the poor people, the food, so whatever you do, basically, you have to feed six people, this is the easiest thing to do, and it is completely permissible.

So we said, if you cut your hair or trim your nails intentionally, or, sorry, not intentionally, if you cut your hair or your nails for a legitimate reason or for no reason, you must give a fidya, but it must be done intentionally, if it's unintentional, there is no fidya, so like I said, if you scratch your hair and something, you know, a hair falls off, or if your nail just scratches against the wall, and then it breaks, there is no fidya whatsoever, also the concept of there being three hairs scratching, this is, there's nothing from the sunnah, like this, cutting and shaving is understood, you go to the barber, you're cutting your hair, you shave, you shave, but simply combing or simply touching, that does not necessitate a fidya, and there is no evidence whatsoever that combing is not allowed in the ihram, no evidence whatsoever, sisters may

comb, brothers may comb, I have done hajj, I take my comb with me, I have, back then I had, mashaAllah, a very big beard, I would comb my beard every day in hajj, and I don't see any problem with that.

The second issue that we said is wearing a stitched garment, right, wearing a stitched garment, similarly, if you wear a stitched garment intentionally, intentionally, this is the key point, then you must also pay the same fidya, one of these three things, however, if it is done unintentionally, how can it be done unintentionally, suppose at Muzdalifah, it's very cold at night, there's no tent over you, and you're shivering, you forget about it, you pull a sweater out of your your backpack, right, and then you put it on, somebody says, Astaghfirullah, you're wearing a stitched garment, you say, oh Astaghfirullah, I'm wearing it, there's no fidya, because Allah says:

Whatever you have done accidentally, khata, nisyan, Allah has forgiven it, right, and the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Ibn Majah 2043)

Allah has raised from my ummah, anything that they've done accidentally and mistake, and somebody forced them to do it, if you accidentally, if you mistakenly wear a stitched garment, there's nothing on you, for men.

Similarly, suppose it's very, very hot, right, and you're walking in the sun, and you just take a cap out, and you put it on your head to cover yourself from the sun, somebody said, oh, you're wearing the cap, oh, you take it off, once again, it was unintentional, there's no fidya whatsoever, because you didn't do it intentionally.

Now, suppose you did it intentionally for a reason, and this is another point people need to understand, the sharia allows people to break these codes, if there's a legitimate reason, Ka'b ibn Ujra رضي الله عنه was a companion, and he was suffering from lice, and he thought, like many of us think, that even if you're dying, you cannot break the ihram, the lice, this is disgusting, but the lice was so much, it was jumping off of his head, it was falling on his clothes, it was, it was causing immense suffering, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم saw him and he said:

(Bukhari 1816, Muslim 1201)

"Go shave your hair, and give a fidya", and he don't kill yourself over this, right, go shave your hair, and give a fidya.

Now, from this, the scholars say, if Muzdalifah is freezing cold, and you need to wear a jacket or a sweater, wear a jacket or a sweater, and give a fidya, for men, obviously, women, they have no issue wearing, you understand this point, the sharia is not telling you to be backward, and go crazy over this,

the sharia is saying, don't do it, except for a legitimate reason, if there's a legitimate reason, well, then do it, and then pay the fidya, right.

So when there's a legitimate reason, some people, they might feel like fainting, let's say, it's very hot, and they want to cover their head, go ahead and cover the head, if you think you're not going to faint, because of it, right, and then give the fidya, later on, Allah has not made our religion so difficult.

The Hadith of Ka'b shows us, when there's a need, you may do it, and then you may give the fidya.

Going to Makkah and Performing Umrah

Now, similarly, once, four, five, six years ago, there was a big, was the bird flu, what's it called, the bird, the, the, the bird, HN41, or whatever, right, the swine flu thing, right, so a lot of hujjaj were wearing the cap, the, not the cap, the surgical mask, right, no problem, wear it, and give the fidya, and you, there's a legitimate reason, you don't want to go back with this disease, right, so the scholars said, no problem, and mask, the whole hujjaj, you may go ahead and wear it, but you still have to give the fidya, but you're not sinful, there's a legitimate reason to, to wear the, cover the face, or do something of this nature.

Similarly, when you are going to sleep, let's say, right, you may put a blanket on top of you, but by the way, here, maybe this is a strict position of mine, I, I don't think that a sleeping bag is allowed, that you zipper up, because to me, that would then be a garment covering you, but you may have a sleeping bag, that you don't zipper up, you have a sleeping bag, in other words, you just fold it on you, right, you know, the western sleeping bag that you get, right, so, and this doesn't apply for women, again, only for men, so, because this would be basically a whole garment, again, so you just have a sleeping bag, and you fold it on yourself, without zipping it up, okay.

Some scholars say, sleeping bag is allowed, because it doesn't quite follow, and the mukhit, my, personally, I like to avoid it, but you may use it, as I said, without zipping it up, once again, though, if it gets cold, and you, and Muzdalifah sometimes gets very cold, in fact, this Hajj, Muzdalifah might be very cold, so, and Muzdalifah, as you're aware, does not have any tents, there's no roof, you're sleeping in the, in the middle of the desert, once in a while, Muzdalifah will get close to freezing, and there's wind blowing, and sometimes, I've been in Muzdalifah, when it's been raining, drizzle, it's not a pleasant place to be in, when it's cold and wet, in such a case, you wear the clothing, and you give the no problem, okay.

So, we talked about this, now, the next issue, perfume, once again, people go to crazy extremes, what is prohibited, is you apply perfume to yourself, in the state of Ihram, you take out your Gucci spray, and you go, okay, now, if you do this accidentally, you take off the garment, you wash it, and then you wear it again, no Fidya, if it's on your body, you go, and you wash your body, you may take bath during Ihram, there was a dispute amongst the Sahaba, should we take a bath or not, they went to Abu Ayub Al-Ansari رضي الله عنه and lo and behold, he was taking a bath in the state of Ihram, that resolved the dispute right then and there, right, he said:

(Abu Dawud 1830)

"I saw the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم take a bath during the state of Ihram", you may take a bath, ghusl, during the perfume, accidentally, as soon as you remember, or somebody reminds you, you go, you wash, no Fidya.

If you put it on intentionally, and there might be a legitimate reason, I mean, suppose your Ihram is very stinking and filthy, and you don't have a second one, right, and by the way, just my advice, get two Ihrams for men, buy two Ihrams, and have one clean one, with you, in the backpack, and one that you're wearing, because you're gonna be in the state of Ihram and Hajj for three days, right, and believe you me, within the day, first day or two, it will be completely filthy, so it's good to have another Ihram, and you may substitute, and then discard the other one, throw it away, or whatever, wash it, whatever, it's up to you.

But if you, but sometimes, it might be that it is necessary to apply some perfume, because you're sleeping in a tent with 10 other men, and maybe you are not smelling very nice, and there's a maslaha, there's an overwhelming need, that you don't stink so bad, if that is the case, you apply it, and you pay the Fidya, once again, because these, they're allowed for necessity, and they're prohibited for no reason, but in both cases, you have to give the Fidya.

So what is the Fidya, we explained it, the Fidya is one of three things, number one is what, sacrifice, that's the most expensive, and you may do it, alhamdulillah, but it's not wajib to do only that, number two is, fast three days, when you come back, you don't have to fast in Makkah, number three is, feed six people, okay, this is the Fidya, that is done.

The Fidya should be, if you're going to feed the people, it should be, preferably the people of Makkah, the poor people in Hajj at that time, so it should be done at that time, but it's not wajib, you may feed people when you come back, you may do so, but the most convenient and the best thing to do is to feed people right then and there, fasting should be done when you come back, it should not be done during Hajj, this fasting should not be done during Hajj, there's another type that should be done, but that's a separate issue, this fasting should not be done during Hajj.

So we talked about the Ihram and the issues of Ihram, now, we've now landed in Makkah, these are the nine things prohibited, so we've landed in Jeddah, we are now going to Makkah.

The first thing that we're going to do is to finish the Umrah, the Umrah, this is your Umrah of Tamattu, it's a complete separate unit, you will finish the Umrah, leave the state of Ihram, wear your normal clothes, live your normal life until the 8th of Dhul Hijjah.

So if you were to go right now to Makkah, then you will do Umrah tomorrow basically, be out of the state of Ihram tomorrow night and then remain in Makkah or basically remain outside of Ihram until the 8th of

Dhul Hijjah, if you were to go on the 6th of Dhul Hijjah and land on the 7th, basically the same thing, you will do Umrah on the 7th, leave the state of Ihram on the night of the 7th, on the morning of the 8th, you re-enter Ihram, it's clear, it doesn't matter how long the gap is, it may be one hour, it may be two months, it doesn't matter, it has to be after Ramadan and after, so two months is the max, you cannot go before Ramadan for Tamattu, Ramadan is when Tamattu begins basically, so from Ramadan to Dhul Hijjah, so far so clear, right, so far so clear, okay.

We go to Makkah, we do Umrah, Umrah is very easy, Tawaf, Sa'i and trimming of the hair, right, and the scholars say that if you're doing Tamattu, when you finish your Umrah, you should not shave, because you should keep the shaving for the Hajj, because if you shave your hair, within 7 days you won't have hair for Hajj, right, so what you do is you trim, and this is a problem, because 90% of the barbers want to shave your hair with the machine, because it takes 10 seconds, right, you need to go and find a place and say, no, no, and of course, barbers make a killing in Hajj, they make a killing, they charge 4-5 times the price, sometimes they charge you 10 times the price of a haircut off-season, right, but that's their business, they earn their month, their years, during Hajj.

So you need to find a barber and say, I want to only cut, scissors, make sure, because 99% of them, they just want to do the Zoom with the machine and that's it, they're out of there, get out of here, get another guy in, and they'll charge you 10 riyals to do that, and maybe 40 riyals to do the regular, but scholars say if you're going to do Tamattu, then you should delay the shaving for the Hajj, because that's more preferred, right, so you do your Tawaf, you do your Sa'i, and then you trim your hair.

And the concept of taking one bit from here, one bit from here, one bit from here, doesn't seem to be correct, you must do a proper trim, you are finding a loophole, and this is not what the Sharia wants, you do a proper haircut, and I don't think it is my personal position, it is not permissible to simply take one, one, one, as some people do, a lot of people do that, this is not the goal of the Sharia, the goal of the Sharia is you shed your hair, you get rid of your hair, or at least you trim it, so you go to a proper barber, or you can go to the hotel, and somebody can do it for you, if you all agree to do so, I have done many times where we all become barbers in Hajj, instead of paying 50 riyals or 100 riyals there, we just do it ourselves quickly and do that, and that is permissible, and believe me, nobody cares about your fashion during Hajj, so it's no big deal, however it looks for 5-6 days, no big deal inshallah.

In that Umrah, that is the Umrah, that is the Tawaf, where you will expose the right shoulder, and you will put the Ihram underneath the right shoulder, and you will walk the first 3 times extra fast, this is only theory, in reality you cannot walk as fast as you want, you will walk as fast as the crowd wants, so there is a difference between theory and reality, you will all read, walk the first 3 quickly, it's all theory, it never happens, you just worry about showing the right arm as Sunnah, if you don't show the right arm, no big deal, it's Sunnah, but it doesn't ruin the Hajj at all, it has nothing to do with the Hajj.

So you do your Tawaf, you do your Sa'i, you don't have to do Tawaf and Sa'i back to back, you may take a break, you may rest, you may drink and go out and eat, but you are not going to leave Ihram until when? Not even Sa'i, trimming, if you finish the Sa'i and you don't trim, you are not outside of Ihram, you don't have to cut your hair immediately, you may go buy a Shawarma, if you are really hungry, no problem, but you are still in the state of Ihram, until you trim your hair, once you trim your hair, that's it, you are out the state of Ihram.

Therefore you go back home, you take a bath, put all the perfume you want on, and wear your regular clothes, and everything is Halal for you, everything, there is no prohibition because you are now back to regular state, and that's why Tamattu' is called Tamattu' because you enjoy this middle period.

Groups Going to Madinah

Now, for most groups that come from the western lands, they will first go to Makkah, they will do the Umrah, and then they will go to Madinah, and then they will come back, some groups go to Madinah first, therefore, if your group is going to Madinah first, well then you don't have to worry about Ihram when you land in Jeddah, because you are not entering Makkah, you are going to Madinah, so if you are going to Madinah first, you don't have to worry about Ihram, that's why a lot of Hujjaj, they try to find a group that's going to Madinah first, because that saves them the hassle of entering Ihram in an airplane, because when you go to Madinah, Madinah is outside of the Miqat, so when you land in Jeddah, then you'll take a bus, or you'll take a plane to Madinah, it doesn't matter that Jeddah is inside the Miqat, you're going to leave again, and come back in again.

So if you go to Madinah first, you don't have to worry about Ihram, and then when you leave Madinah, right outside of Madinah, 10 minutes, there's a place called Dhul Hulaifa, every single bus, taxi driver, everybody will stop there, say this is the place of Ihram, so there you go, pray two rakat, you wear your Ihram, and you move on, so Alhamdulillah, scar-free, but if you're going to Makkah first, then you have to wear Ihram in the plane before you land in Jeddah, clear?

Now, question, yes, you may put the Ihram on in Madinah, but you say Labbaik when you're in Dhul Hulaifa, right, you may, look, wearing the Ihram, I can wear Ihram right now, I won't be in the state of Ihram, wearing the Ihram doesn't make you in the state of Ihram, you have to say Labbaik to enter into the state of Ihram, okay?

Now, question, suppose you're doing Tamattu, you land in Makkah first, but you're going to Madinah in the middle, and then you're coming back to Makkah until the 8th of Dhul Hijjah, you guys following me? You do Umrah, now you're out of Ihram, now you go to Madinah, now you come back, where do you put your Ihram on from now?

The strongest position is you may wear your Ihram back in Makkah, because you are now Mutamattu, you are doing Tamattu Hajj, therefore, there is no concept of you putting your Ihram on from Dhul

Hulaifa, because you're in the era, the period of Tamattu, you're in the period of enjoyment, so you put your Ihram on, on the morning of the 8th, wherever you are.

In other words, if your group is going to Makkah first, and then Madinah, you do not have to wear your Ihram from Madinah again, only if your group goes to Madinah first, then you have to wear your Ihram from Madinah, otherwise, if you are already performed your Umrah, then you are Tamattu, you are free, and the whole point of being Mutamattu is you can enjoy up until the 8th, correct? That's the meaning of Tamattu, you enjoy life until the 8th of Dhul Hijjah, right?

And this is the position, this is the one area, by the way, I have done the most amount of research on any issue, this issue, because we would face it every year, every year we would face this issue, and I asked many many Ulema, I've read many books, the summary is basically, there is no issue whatsoever by entering into Makkah again, so suppose your group will go to Makkah, let's say, on the 25th of Dhul Qa'dah, right? And then on the 26th, it'll leave for Madinah, come back on the 5th of Dhul Hijjah, so you have three days in Makkah, you don't have to be in Ihram for those three days, you may live a regular life, and then on the 8th of Dhul Hijjah, you re-enter into Ihram, so, yes, can you make multiple Umrahs before Hajj?

You should not do so, it's not Haram to, but it goes against the perfection, because that's how the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did it, and because you should save your energies for the Hajj, and because you should make extra Tawaf and extra Nafl in the Haram, so the point of Tamattu' is, you do one Umrah, one Hajj, lots of Ibadah, that's the perfection, so for you as a Mutamattu', the one Umrah and the one Hajj is what you do, and the rest of it is Ibadah, Nafl, you may do as many Tawaf as you want, you may do ten Tawafs a day, Tawaf, you don't need to be in Ihram, you can do Tawaf in your clothes, Tawaf, you can do Ihram in pants, shirt, in shawarma, in thawb, it doesn't matter, Tawaf, it's just Tawaf, that's it, there's no Sa'i, there's no Shaykh, it's just Tawaf, it's an act of worship, so you may do as many Tawafs as you want, but the perfection is not to do another Umrah, and that's why it's better to avoid it.

Yes, you say Labbayk, Labbayk Allahumma Labbayk, this is the Niyah, yes, yes, after the Sa'i, after the hair, for women, for women by the way, let me just say, you cut off a finger, the tip of the finger, so basically a quarter inch or half an inch, from the end of the hair, you cut off a little that much, yes, no, see, to do Ihram again for Hajj, you don't have to leave Makkah, you're getting confused, outside of Hajj, you have to leave Makkah and come back in, Masjid Aisha, Dhul Hulaifa, Namira, this is only outside of Hajj, for Hajj, that's why it's called Tamattu, for Hajj, you don't have to leave Makkah again, on the morning of the 8th, in your hotel room, you will wear Ihram as a man, as a woman, you will say:

And that's your Ihram, that will be Ihram, but only for Hajj, you can never do that outside of Hajj, outside of Hajj, you can never make your Niyyah from the hotel room in Makkah, right, that would not be

allowed, okay.

As I said from in the beginning, you're going to have to start ignoring and please brothers and sisters, take my advice, don't get a fatwa from your guy sleeping next to you in the tent, please, this is your Hajj and your religion, somebody says, I read in a book this, I read in a book that, Subhanallah, how much confusion I have had to explain, how much ignorance, like people just talk a lot, they think they know their religion, Hajj is a very complicated act of worship, go to people of knowledge and you know Alhamdulillah, the government, they have done a lot of good by the way, you can criticize a lot, but they've done a lot of good as well, of the best things they've done in Hajj, they have fatwa offices everywhere, in all the languages of the world, everywhere you find small cabins, it says fatwa, question, you know, you have any issue, these are people, my friends used to, I could have translated as well, but I didn't want to go there, but this is something people of knowledge go to, and they're all scholars who have done Hajj and they know the fiqh, please, don't get the fatwa from your friend, don't get the fatwa from, oh, I read in a book this, because you will ruin your Ibadah, and I have had to, Astaghfirullah, lots of horror stories of Hajj, go to people of knowledge, go to these cabins, and you will find a sheikh there, there will be a translator around him, English and Urdu, every cabin has it, the more exotic languages, you can find it, but English and Urdu, every single cabin will have translators for English and Urdu, you go there and ask your question.

Let's quickly proceed, yes, what was the point exactly, so if you're doing Hajj and you land in Makkah first, right, you look at your group, find out what your group is doing, are they going to Makkah first or Medina first, if they're going to Medina first, let me start with the easy one, if they're going to Medina first, you don't have to wear Ihram in the plane, you go to Medina in your regular clothes, you worship, you pray, you do everything you want, then when you leave Medina, you will wear your Ihram, and you will enter into Ihram from there, so no problem.

When you go on a Hajj package that goes to Makkah first, and then goes to Medina, and then returns back to Makkah, right, before the Hajj, so it's basically Makkah, Medina, Makkah, and some packages are like that, in that type of package, you do not have to wear Ihram from Medina, you may return back to Makkah in your regular clothes, if you want to write this down, write this down, because I guarantee you that when you get there, there will be a huge commotion, it happens in every Hajj package, and everybody's confused what to do, should we wear Ihram from the hotel, or we're allowed to go back to Makkah, I'm telling you very clearly, take my word for this, this is the issue I have spent years researching and debating and whatnot, you don't have to wear Ihram from Medina, you may wear it from Makkah, why, because you have already done your Umrah, correct, so what are you going to enter Ihram for, for what, Hajj is another 5 days away, 10 days away, you're going to be in Ihram for 5 days, life is going to be very difficult, okay, so you don't wear Ihram if you've done your Umrah, if you haven't done Umrah, that's a separate story, but you have if you go to Makkah first, so far so clear, right, is everybody on the same page?

That's exactly the point, yes, you don't, you don't have to wear.

The Days of Hajj

Now, let's get to the actual Hajj, on the morning of the 8th, the 8th of Dhul Hijjah is the first day of Hajj, the 8th of Dhul Hijjah is the first day of Hajj, some groups will bring you to Mina on the 7th of Dhul Hijjah and have you sleep there, no problem, it doesn't matter, you can go to Mina now and sleep there, right, but Hajj will start on the 8th, after Dhuhr, most groups leave Makkah on the morning to get there around Dhuhr time, so technically, you should be there for Dhuhr and Asr, but if you're delayed traffic, it's all Sunnah, the entire 8th day is Sunnah, so relax, you may even start Hajj on the 9th and your Hajj is complete without any Fidya, without any Wajib, 8th of Dhul Hijjah is Sunnah, so this is a preliminary, it's a taster, get ready, if something happens on this day and you don't go to Mina, no sweat, you may skip it all and go directly to Arafat, but 99% of packages, they go to Mina and that's good, they should go to Mina, it's Sunnah.

So you go there, where do you wear your Ihram from on the 8th, who can tell me? Wherever you are, right, in your hotel room, wherever you are, that's the whole point of it, you wear your Ihram from there, where do you make the Niyah? In your hotel room, you say:

Basically from where you are, you will make the Niyah, you will then go to Mina, Sunnah is to get there before Dhuhr, but let's be realistic, there's 3 million people, it's not in your hands, don't sweat, if you get there at 10 AM, you get there at 6 PM, your Hajj is completely valid, the whole day is Sunnah and Allah knows your Niyah, if you're stuck in traffic, don't worry about it, Allah knows your Niyah, you will get the reward of the Sunnah even, ok.

Once you get to Mina, Dhuhr and Asr combined and shortened, Maghrib and Isha combined and shortened, ok, so you pray Dhuhr and Asr 2-2 at one time, and Maghrib and Isha 3-2 and Witr as well at one time, and what do you do in Mina? Ibadah, Quran, Dhikr, Dua, you get ready for the next day, the big day, that is the big day, 9th, 9th is the big day of Hajj.

One of the biggest problems of going with a group is too much chit-chat, believe me right now, if you've never been for Hajj, you think I'm gonna go and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that, believe you me, when you're surrounded by people of your age and all of you suffering and bad food and this and that, it's so easy to start talking and gossiping and talking about the situation, cracking jokes at the sanitary conditions over there, and hours go by, it's a very big fitna from Shaytan that your Hajj is just being wasted away, even if you're not doing something haram, you're wasting time, that's not why you spent $10,000, this is how much is Hajj man, when I was a teenager, we used to go for like $1,500 back from here in America, I did most of my Hajj for free Alhamdulillah, but I mean, back then it was what, $1,500, now it's what, $8,000, $7,000, $15,000 is for some of us, not everybody can afford that, $15,000

Alhamdulillah, $7,000, $8,000 is the average right, yeah, so you're not spending $8,000 to chit chat with your friends or people that you make there, basically, learn from day one to be polite but rude, firm, you're there for your own Ibadah, right, have your Quran with you, have your Duas and Zikrs that you wanna do, Zikr book or Dua book and just worship, don't worry about other people.

So you spend the night in Mina, as we said, if you don't, your Hajj is completely valid, not a problem, 8th is all Sunnah.

The 9th Day - Arafat

The 9th is the big day, this is your Hajj, if you miss the 9th, you have no Hajj, 9th is the day of Hajj, the 9th is the day of Arafah, the 9th is when you will go to the most sacred place on Earth at that time and spend the entire day on the plains of Arafat, you technically should get there, basically, around Zawal, before Zawal, after Zawal, but I mean, if you get there a little bit late as well, not a problem, but it is Wajib to get there before Maghrib and you cannot leave Arafat before Maghrib and by the way, you cannot leave in our times because the government closes the roads, so there's no issue of you leaving, the roads are literally blocked, they open up the gates at Maghrib, so there's no issue of you leaving.

So Arafat is the main time of Hajj and that is the time you will go to Arafat and you will combine Dhuhr and Asr, 2-2 and for the rest of the 4, 5, 6 hours that you have, that is the time of Dua and Dhikr, that is the time of praying and begging for forgiveness, that is the time of basically pleading to Allah for a better life in this world and the next, this is Hajj, nothing is better for you at that time than Dua, that's why even you pray Dhuhr and Asr right at the beginning, soon as the time comes in, you actually get rid of the Fard prayers because there's something more important than that and that is the Dua, the whole point of Hajj are those few hours.

Believe you me, you will find half the crowd just chit-chatting, believe you me, it's unbelievable but if you've been for Hajj, you know this, it's just, believe it or not, you just get tired, just hot, you're sweaty, you just start wasting time, Astaghfirullah, you're not there for that, my advice to you as I said, don't even make too many friends, right, so that you're just on your own, you go to the corner of the tent, you go outside, you make Dua.

Simple advice as well, drink lots of water, this is a dehydration day, it's a very difficult time, also please do not wander from your tents on Arafat, the most difficult time to get lost is the day of Arafat, you don't want to be spending 3 hours finding your camp again, okay.

Before I move on, again some practical advice, in Mina, in Mina, make a mental note or a physical note of your tent number, once you have your tent number, breathe with relief, now it doesn't matter what happens, in 2 days you'll be back in that tent, even if you get lost from your group, have at least 50, 100 Riyals on you, every single one of you, men and women, right, if you're going with a child, make sure you have a safety tag with a phone number and an address of the tent on the child's hand, something that is

fastened to the child, that this camp, this tent, believe me, this is not, you know, you don't want to ruin your Hajj like this, right, if you're going with children, if you're going as an adult, have some money on you, anybody above 12, 13 years old, just have cash on you and know your tent in Mina.

If you get lost, very easy, you can't, as a man, you can't even change your clothes anyway, right, you just need some food and water which is found everywhere, for a day, you're going to be in Muzdalifah and Arafat, on the next day, you'll come back to your tent in Mina, all the tents are numbered and there are maps everywhere and if you get lost, there are Boy Scouts there, you can find them, the Saudi Boy Scouts, you'll see them there and just show them the tent number, they'll direct you in that direction, very easy, it's all numbered like a grid, it's literally like a grid, it'll say Alif 21 or Ba 63 and that's all you got to memorize, just memorize that and you'll find it in every tent in Mina, just look outside and you'll see a pillar somewhere, very high up, just memorize your tent number because it's that tent that you'll come back to and therefore, you'll be back with your group.

In Arafat, there is no numbering system because it's one day, so that's why don't get lost in Arafat, Arafat is the day of Ibadah, of Dua, of Dhikr, this is when you raise your hands to Allah, you beg, you plead, you cry, especially right before Maghrib, that's the main time when Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala himself comes down and Allah عز وجل asks the angels:

Do you not see, he's boasting (يُبَاهِي بِكُمْ - Yubahi bikum), the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, he's boasting that these are my servants that have come to me and I will give them everything they want and I have forgiven all of them.

So this is the time of Dua and Dhikr, this is the time where you open up your heart to Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala and pray for everyone, for your friends, your relatives, for those who have taught you the Fiqh of Hajj, this is the time that you pray for them, basically you open up your heart and you make Dua for all of your friends, family, yourself, your children and this is the time of acceptance of Dua.

When the sun sets, now you may relax a little bit, go sit in the bus for 5 hours because you're not gonna go anywhere if you're going in a bus, if you've been in Hajj, you know what I'm talking about, this is the time when you just have to wait, the main Ibadah is done, you may take a little bit of a breathing sigh of relief.

Point of advice, if you're young and healthy, walk it, Wallahi you'll enjoy it more and you'll have a better experience, take a sleeping bag, take some basic items on your backpack, you know your tent in Mina right, you know your tent in Mina, walk it, you will enjoy your Hajj infinitely more right, on the 9th now, after an hour and a half, 2 hours and the beauty of this walk, it is the best walk that I've ever done in my life, why? Because the Muslims are just around you, Talbiya, just the spirit of Islam, I mean this is really, it's a humbling sight, also you breathe fresh air because the path of walking is miles away from the road, one

of the things that I dread about those days is the smog, makes me sick, I cannot stand that smog, you're sitting in the bus and you're surrounded by thousands of other buses and the smog and the smoke and it just, it gets to you, makes you nauseous and you're literally sitting there, sometimes I have sat there in the bus till 11 pm, why? Because of traffic, you just sit there in the bus, whereas if you walk, you will get there by 7.30 and you enjoy it and you get some nice ice cream on the way and you know, get some shawarmas as well, I'm mentioning lots of shawarmas here but anyway, you notice that okay, you see what I miss over here, so you get the spirit of Hajj right, everybody's walking, it's a very well-lit path, it's a nice huge area of just walking, all of the Hujjaj are walking there right, so you enjoy Hajj in that sense.

So if you're able to walk and when I say young, I mean basically, if you don't have a handicap, you can walk it, really, it's not as if you know, it's any issue, I mean there, it's just a simple hour and a half with no, there's not even going to be rush in the sense that because it's walking and there's so much area, you're not congested, there's plenty of space, you can breathe and have a nice walk there, so if you want to walk, Alhamdulillah, if you walk, then you will meet your group the next morning in Mina, you will spend the night in Muzdalifah.

Muzdalifah

So from Mina, you go to Arafat, the day, then the night, you go to Muzdalifah, now I wish I had a map but I myself didn't have time to make a PowerPoint, it's all my fault, look at my hand, simple enough right, Mina, Muzdalifah, Arafat, once again, Mina, let me put it this way, Mina right, you have Muzdalifah and then Arafat over here, what this means is from Mina, you will cross over Muzdalifah to get to Arafat right, then on the way back, Arafat, Muzdalifah, Mina, so it's easier to get back, so you go there by car, I'm not asking you to walk, it's very difficult to walk from Makkah to Arafat, will take you 3 hours, that's too far and you don't want to get tired on that day but on the way back, hour and a half, hour and a half, that's good right, hour and a half at Maghrib time on the 9th and then the next morning after a nice sleep, then you wake up and another hour and a half right, so you break up that into 2.

So in Muzdalifah, you will get there between 7.30 to midnight basically right, depending on how you got there and what not, you will get there, Muzdalifah is the most difficult part of Hajj for us spoiled Westerners, why? Because Astaghfirullah you have to sleep on rocks, on this open, there's no tent, there's no air conditioning except the natural air conditioning, you're basically sleeping out in the desert because it's only one night, so the government has not prepared any facilities and also one of the most difficult problems for us Westerners is the restroom and what can I tell you about the restroom, but in Muzdalifah, it is, what can I say okay, it's just sabr, sabr, sabr, yes sabr and that's why in one sense, you have to drink a lot of water, in another sense on Muzdalifah is not the time to drink too much water.

Also realize that the most common time to get lost is Muzdalifah, why? Because in Arafat, generally speaking, there's no reason for you to wander outside the tent, you know your food will come to you, the restroom will be reasonable distance, you can go back and forth, in Muzdalifah, the restroom might be

half a mile, a mile away right and so you look and you see the restroom over there, you think oh that's easy enough, I can go straight ahead, when you walk out of the restroom, you see an ocean of faces, of people, you're like where did I come from, where's my tent, there is no tent, where's my group, everybody looks the same and you start panicking, don't panic, you know your tent number in Mina, don't worry, walk it, it's an hour and a half, everybody's walking in one direction, you're not going to get lost, you're not going to be walking the other direction, don't worry, as I said, you have 15 riyals, 10 riyals, that's all you need, have some more, but I'm saying you just want to buy some water and some juice and some shawarma, that's it right, don't worry about, don't worry about getting lost in Muzdalifah, don't worry about it, don't panic, doesn't matter how old or young you are, everybody's heading in the same direction and you will get to your tent inshallah, if you know your tent number, which is why I said write it down, but if you don't want to get lost, the best thing to do is to go with a friend and both of you make sure you keep track, okay, the bridges to the left and by the way, you think you see a bridge, when you walk out, you'll see seven bridges, like which bridge was the one I was on, so I mean basically use your common sense.

Also you know sometimes you wake up at three o'clock at night, you need to go to the bathroom, you're disoriented anyway, it's the very, believe me, I am a seasoned expert, that's the one time I also, where did I come from, where is it, it's very very easy to get lost, I mean if you do get lost, don't worry about it, as I said just move on, not a big deal.

But Muzdalifah is the time, Muzdalifah you pray your Maghrib and your Isha, (جَمْع وَقَصْر - Jam' wa Qasr), three and two and your Witter as well, Witter is never left, so you pray Witter over there as well and then you go to sleep.

It is commonly said that you should pick your stones from Muzdalifah, the Sharia does not at all ever even suggest or hint at that, this is in my opinion a cultural addition, you may pick your stones from anywhere, you may even pick them from your backyard here in America, it doesn't matter where you pick your stones from, the Sharia does not specify, there's not even a fabricated Hadith that talks about picking the stones from Muzdalifah, but some scholars basically liked it because it's the day before, but you may pick your stones from anywhere, also another reason you might want to pick your stones from Muzdalifah is because there's a lot of stones in Muzdalifah, right, so it's just easier to pick stones, but from a Sharia perspective, you may pick your stones from anywhere and I would actually pick my stones on the 8th from Mina, so that I didn't have to worry about finding stones in the middle of the night in Muzdalifah, I would personally do this in Mina under the tent, you just walk outside and you dig in the ground and you find stones and then you know you take them from there, there's no Sharia reason to pick them from Muzdalifah.

I'm getting there right now, that was the exact next word that I was about to say, another problem that happens is people go a little bit extreme about the stones, Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما was picking stones

and like most of us as well, he thought he's going to pick some nice big ones, the Prophet صلى الله عليه :said وسلم

(Bukhari 1748)

"No, not like this, let it be like a chickpea seed, let it be like a chickpea seed", basically the tip of your finger, that big, something like this, just the tip of your finger, which is one eighth of an inch or a little bit bigger than that, a centimetre, centimetre and a half, one of the biggest exaggerations that happens is and in fact in one hadith he said:

(Ibn Majah 3029)

"Don't go to extremes, don't go out of bounds here, don't go to extremes", just pick something that's reasonable and by the way this is a very wise advice because one of the most common problems in Hajj is stitches that you need because somebody's throwing stones at the back of your head, somebody thought you're the shaitan, okay, no because the pillar is there and people are throwing and they don't know how to throw a ball, their life depended on it, so they throw a stone and it just hits you smack in the back right, and if they choose a big rock then it's a dangerous thing, so it's a very wise advice from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to choose small stones right, so it should be something small.

Now again don't go to exaggeration that you take a ruler with you, you measure every stone, I mean the sharia is not that difficult, rough idea, rough you know just something like this, you don't have to wash it, you don't have to put it to the sun, you don't have to check for the purity, but one thing and this I will say, you can't choose cement, so don't find some cement somewhere and break it up yourself and then have seven, choose a rock right, because you'll find a brick let's say, you know the cement, the brick that they have and some people say oh okay this is a brick, let me take a something and break up the brick and then I have seven pieces of, you know this is in my opinion you should choose a stone, I mean I'm not saying it's null and void if you break a brick up, but the point is you're supposed to choose a natural stone, so you choose seven small ones and so now we've done the ninth, we're on the night of the ninth, we have woken up preferably in Muzdalifah.

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم allowed women and elderly to leave Muzdalifah early, so suppose a woman is expecting, she's pregnant let's say or an elderly man or woman, they may leave Muzdalifah after midnight, no sin, no penalty, no fidya, it is permissible to leave after midnight and the people who are in charge of this elderly person may leave with them, so suppose you have your mother with you let's say right and she's elderly and you want to take care of her, well then who's going to take care of her, you, so you go with her and there's no penalty on you.

You seven stones for the first day and then 21, 21 for the other two days, so it's 49 total but you don't have to pick them all at once and you don't have to pick them from Muzdalifah, you may pick them anywhere right, so technically, technically it's anywhere but culturally on that night you'll see 50% of the

hajjaj picking you know here and there looking in the night and trying to find stones, as I said make your life easier, do it the day before.

Now you wake up in Muzdalifah, if you have left earlier no problem, if there is a reason, what is the reason, as I said elderly, pregnant, if you have a baby with you, basically you know common sense, I mean if you have an infant with you, you're allowed to leave early and start the other rites at that time, so you get there earlier but if you don't have a reason then you shouldn't leave Muzdalifah, you should wake up on Fajr there, yes, you if you're sick what should you do, you look at your own state of affairs, if it's just a little bit of a cough, everybody gets a cough, you will not come back from hajj, a sign of going for hajj is you get a cough, if you don't have a cough, I will not believe you have gone for hajj, I will not, I'm telling you, I will not believe it, if you come back completely normal, no sniffy nose and no cough, I won't believe, this is just imagination, you went in a dream baby, every single hajji comes back with a cough and a wheezing nose and this is just, this is the gift of the hujjaj mashallah okay.

I think we should move on and leave Q&A at the end then because we only have 15 minutes left, you should stay all night, there's the ihram, you should stay all night as I said, unless there's a reason, if your hajj package leaves, then you are, it's not in your hands, so you stick with your group, it's easier for you okay, if your hajj package leaves in the middle of the night, Allah knows your niyyah and don't make life difficult, they're leaving, what are you going to do, I'm not advising you to do hajj alone but it's not a problem if you do.

Let's leave now questions to the end because I'm, it's only 15 minutes left.

The 10th Day - Four Actions

So the 10th day, now this word, it gets confusing, if you listen to me inshallah, it won't be confusing at all, very easy, the 10th day, there are four actions that you have to do, four actions, any two of them will get you out of what we call the minor ihram and all four will get you out of ihram totally, what is this minor ihram and simple, minor ihram allows you to do everything except intimacy with your spouse and what leads to it, foreplay, so minor ihram, once you're out of it, you change your clothes, you wear perfume, you may trim your nails, so that's minor ihram, major ihram, you may now resume conjugal relations with your spouse, so minor ihram, the only difference is intimacy, that's it.

When you do two of these four things, you're out of the state of minor ihram, which means you take a bath, you shave, if you're the type who shaves, you shave, even though in my opinion, you shouldn't be shaving but I mean, you may now trim, you may now cut your nails, you may now wear normal clothes, you may put perfume on, this is minor ihram, clear, two out of the four, you get out of minor, right, all four, you're out of ihram totally, clear, okay.

What are these four things, number one, and they may be done in any order by what the prophet of himself said, a man came to me and said, oh messenger of Allah, I did number two before number one,

he said, no problem, another one said, I did number one after number three, no problem, another man said, I did number four before number two, said no problem, the sahabi said, nobody came to him with any arrangement except that he said, no problem, the arrangement is completely up to you, you may do any of these in any order, there is no basically wajib or anything in the order.

What are these four things:

Number one: Stoning the large jamrah, there's three jamrahs, large, small and medium, stoning the large jamrah, by seven times, that's number one.

Number two: Shaving of the hair.

Number three: The hadi or the sacrifice.

And number four: The tawaf of the hajj itself, the tawaf of the hajj itself.

Now, 99.99% of you will be buying a ticket for the hadi, correct, you will not go yourself with a knife and choose your animal and do it yourself, correct, some people do, those who are regulars, I've done it once in a while, but I mean, regular, for you guys, it's really, you have enough to worry about, so, what does this mean, you're left with three, correct, therefore, as soon as you go and you do the rami, you're out of the minor ihram, and then when you shaved your hair, of course, you're shaving your hair, that's basically, you've done three of the four now, correct.

So, you may shave your hair first, believe it or not, a lot of people think you have to do the rami, you may shave your hair, because that is a right of hajj now, this is a part of the hajj, you're allowed to trim your hair if you want, but the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم encouraged the shaving, but you may trim it if you want to, you may just get to a barber and trim it, not a problem, but you may shave first, but most people do the rami first.

So, you do the rami, you shave your hair, you've done three of the four, you may assume that the hadi is done, basically, in the morning, that's your assumption, because there is no way you can verify, and the scholars have said, you may assume that your hadi is done, because they have three million, you know, sheep they have to sacrifice, they're gonna start before hajj and continue after hajj, it is not humanly possible to sacrifice that many sheep and goats simultaneously, okay, so, you may assume yours is done, no problem.

Therefore, as soon as you do rami, you're out of the ihram, minor ihram, right, so, if after rami, you want to go and take a bath and put on your regular clothes, that's fine, and then go to the barber, that's fine, but most people, because when you're going to go to the barber, you're going to be messy anyway, because of all the hair, most people actually then go to the barber, there's a, alhamdulillah, they built a huge barber shop right there, right there at the jamara, at the jamara, there's a, probably one of the largest barber shops in the world, you know, you just go there and you shave your hair off, and then

sister should have scissors with them, they go back to the tent, they take out a forelock of hair, a little bit, and then they just cut it.

So now, they're out of minor ihram, therefore, 90% of you will be completely dressed and clean and fresh smelling and everything, on the morning of the 10th, maybe by 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, you're all now back to your regular dress.

So how long were you in the state of ihram? The day of the 8th, the full 9th, and then the morning of the 10th, so for most people, that works out to less than 48 hours, those 48 hours, your clothes will look like they have been on you for two weeks, believe me, which is why I said for men, have another pair of ihram, and especially in the night of muzdalifah, it's very convenient to change, because it becomes very filthy in the sand and this and that, and so, make sure that that is done.

Now, once you do your tawaf, now you're out of the maid, then you're out of completely of ihram, and as I said, the only difference is intimacy with spouse, otherwise, it's fine, you may delay your tawaf, by the way, you don't have to do it on the 10th, you may do it on the 11th, you may do it on the 12th, you may delay your tawaf, it doesn't matter when you do it, the tawaf does not have to be done on the 10th.

My personal advice, the 10th is extremely difficult to do tawaf, very congested, and it is better to do it either very late night 10th, maybe 2am, right, or 11th, day or night, basically, take your time to do tawaf, I would not advise you to do tawaf on the 10th of the afternoon of the 10th, because it's just too congested, especially if you have a woman with you, because you are literally, it's the most difficult time of the year to do hajj, you are literally surrounded, if you have your wife with you, you're going to have to do tawaf, protecting her to breathe, I'm telling you to breathe, she will have to do this to her so that she can breathe, it's not a comfortable place to be in at all, and Allah does not tell us to make the religion that difficult, there's no need to do on the 10th, do it either as I said, late night, 2am, 3am, or the next morning, or the 12th, not a problem.

So these are the four actions of the 10th, three of them for sure you'll do on the 10th, one of them the tawaf, my advice is you delay, but if you do it on the 10th, it's up to you.

The 11th and 12th Days

11th and 12th, all you have to do is stone the three jamrahs, starting with the small, then the medium, then the large, and you do this on the 11th and the 12th, the 13th is optional, but 99% of hajjaj leave on the 13th, but it is optional, hajj is five or six days, 13th you may also stone, but nobody stones, everybody leaves, and that's permissible as well.

So the 11th and the 12th, there is no action of worship other than stoning, and the stoning should be done, now this is a little bit confusing, I'm worried for those of you who are not taking notes because there's a lot of information here, on the 10th, the stoning can be done any time after fajr, on the 11th and

12th, the stoning should be done after dhuhr, on the 11th and the 12th, the stoning should be done after dhuhr, right.

Now here's a big ikhtilaf, can you do the stoning before dhuhr, in my opinion, you shouldn't, and especially with the modern changes to the jamrah that they have, it's now five stories, and the pillar is not a pillar anymore, it's now longer than this room, it's like a boat, it's longer than this room, and in my opinion, this is a very wise move, and I'm very supportive of it, that there is no more stampede inshaAllah anymore, and so there's no reason for you to come before dhuhr, you may do it at any time, and it's so easy now that even if you're an elderly person, you can go right to the tip and just do it easily and come back, they have really done a marvellous job, and I think it's a very good move on their part.

Otherwise, that's all that you need to do on the 11th and the 12th, and the only act that remains is, of course if you're doing tamattu, then you must do an umrah, sorry, not umrah, a sa'i, sorry, take that back, not umrah, a sa'i, you have to do your sa'i for hajj, obviously, right, and you have to do your final tawaf, called (تَطْوَافُ الْوَدَاعِ - tawaf al-wada'), the farewell tawaf.

Now, some people delay their tawaf that they should have done on the 10th, they delay it up until they're leaving, and so they do one tawaf, and they say this will count for both, the tawaf of hajj and tawaf al- wada', you guys following? This is ja'iz, but this is taking a loophole, if you're young, when I say young, I mean below 60, masha'Allah, if you're young and healthy, come on, this is a hajj, you know, do it properly, if you're elderly, you're sick or something, then no problem, and if you did it without an excuse, now I'll be honest here, I've done hajj 10 times, more than 10 times, many times I would take this, because Alhamdulillah I'm going so often, but for some of you who are going maybe once, the first time, Allah knows when you're going to go again, why would you want to do that?

In other words, do two, do the tawaf that's for the hajj, and then do the tawaf that is tawaf al-wada', now, (تَطْوَافُ الْوَدَاعِ - tawaf al-wada'), and then with this we conclude, so we're done now, so you do the tawaf of the hajj on the 10th, or 11th, or 12th, as we said, or any day up until you leave, you may do طواف الإفاضة (tawaf al-ifadah), so let me clarify, for the person who's doing tamattu', there are three tawafs, the first of them when you first came to Mecca many weeks ago, that's the tawaf of the Umrah, right, that's over and done with, the second of them is the pillar of hajj, that's done on the 10th, or 11th, or 12th, the third of them is the tawaf before you leave, called (تَطْوَافُ الْوَدَاعِ - tawaf of farewell, tawaf al-wada').

You may, if you want to, combine the second and third into one tawaf, you guys following me? And your niyyah will not be (تَطْوَافُ الْوَدَاعِ - tawaf al-wada'), your niyyah will be the طواف الحج (tawaf of hajj), and it will count as (تَطْوَافُ الْوَدَاعِ - tawaf al-wada'), but your niyyah will be طواف الحج (tawaf al-hajj), I don't advise you to do that, but if you do it, it's jaiz, you don't need to give a fidya or hadi or anything, it's completely permissible.

Of course, there's so many things I didn't get into, you're not allowed to do Hajj Badal until you do your own Hajj, right, you cannot do Hajj on behalf of your father or mother until you do your own Hajj, you must do your own Hajj complete, the full Hajj and Umrah, then the second year, third year, tenth year, you come back and you do Hajj Badal on behalf of somebody else, okay.

With this, I think we shouldn't delay any more for Isha, but before we do Isha, if the brothers can just come around and I'll just show them how to put the Ihram on and then we'll give the Adhan for Isha, inshallah, because of this, and by the way, please realize, since you're not wearing any undergarments, be very careful when you sit down, because you can't sit down normally or else you're in trouble, okay, it's very, this is a very common problem, you have to be conscious of.

So I'm just telling you for practical purposes, otherwise you may wear any way you want, the most practical way of doing this, right, you take one corner of the Ihram and you fold it six inches or more, doesn't matter, just you fold it like this, okay, and then you cover the right thigh, you cover the right thigh, so you go all the way up here, and then you go around all the way, Subhanallah, it's been so many years, I feel all these memories coming back, and then you go around all the way, no, no, it's fine, it's fine, I've done this too many times, so this is six to eight, as I said, just to be on the practical, and you put one foot out like this, and again, this is for practical, wallah, you can do it any way, fiqh-wise, this is just to make your life easier, and then you cover the right thigh, the right leg, then you come back again, and then you fold it again on this side, okay, and then you put the belt on the navel, because your Aura is the navel, don't wear your belt where you wear a western pant, which is on your waist, because Shari'i-wise, your navel is Aura, right, you know this, right, okay, so you wear the belt on your navel, and then you fold this on top, so then you have over here a nice space to walk, that's the whole purpose of doing it this way, you have space to walk without your Aura exposing, if you put it this way, you will not have space to walk after a while, it's going to get tight, okay, if you have it this way, what you've done, remember how we did it, is that you had this little area to move your foot, but it's still covered by this, okay, so it's just a practical benefit, that you just cover this, and this gives you a little bit of extra leeway for covering it up.

So what happens is, within a few hours, you will find your cloth shifting this and that, so you already know, these are the two sides here, you can just tighten it like this, you see this, right, you already know that, okay, this is my right side, this is the left side, you simply tighten, your belt is in the middle, so you simply tighten it, and therefore, it's covered again, and of course, every time it gets messed up, you can go to the restroom, and just quickly take it out, and do it again.

Just a simple point, you go to the restroom, realize that floor is Najis, right, and this is a very long garment, so you have to be careful, do it really high up, and so you then do it from here, and this is very easy to do as well, once you do it, you put the belt on, and then you can lower it as well, also again, a practical point of advice, try to keep your ihram as high as possible, preferably up to your middle of your shins, it'll keep your ihram cleaner, and it'll make your life easier as well, apart from that, Alhamdulillah.

Closing Dua

Allahumma taqabbal minna wa a'inna 'ala dhikrika wa shukrika wa husni 'ibadatik, wa salla Allahu 'ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in.